Americas

LA School 2012 takes place against the backgound of sharp changes on the
continent

From Wednesday February 1st until Sunday February 5th, the fifth Latin
American School of the Committee for a Workers International took place
in Sao Paulo, Brazil, involving over 120 comrades from Brazil,
Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, USA, France, Britain, and France.

These were 5 days of intense debate about the extraordinary processes of
mass struggle taking place internationally, in the context of the
biggest global capitalist crisis since the 1930’s which as the
discussions revealed will be of a prolonged character.

The school operated on the basis of group discussions and plenary
sessions which addressed, among others, important issues such as:
‘Socialism in the twenty-first century’ ‘Capitalism: what has gone
wrong?’; ‘The history of the CWI and its struggles today’; ‘Experience
and lessons from the new left parties’; ‘Races and Classes in Latin
America’; ‘May 1968 and the lessons for today’; ‘Revolutions and
counterrevolutions in North Africa and the Middle East’; ‘Where is
Chavez going?’; ‘Argentina: 10 years after the crisis’; ‘Lessons from
the Chilean student movement’; ‘The Tipnis conflict and the government
of Evo Morales’; ‘Perspectives for the international crisis: Europe, USA
and China’; and ‘Perspectives for Latin America’.

The school had a large participation of young people and workers, which
allowed comrades to share valuable experiences and to discuss specific
tactical aspects for the development of the forces of Marxism in the
midst of a world in turmoil.

Period of revolution and counter-revolution

As noted in many of the debates, the year 2011 marked, in a sense, a
turning point in the situation for international capitalism. We pointed
out that the current protracted world capitalist crisis has entered a
new phase, opening an era of revolution and counterrevolution.

2011 began with revolutions in North African and Middle Eastern
countries, with mass movements that swept away decades of dictatorial
regimes. Then we saw the mass movements of workers and youth on the
European continent, against the brutal attacks of the capitalist
governments on their livelihoods, as a result of the deepening crisis.
We witnessed a series of mass general strikes in Greece, Portugal, Spain
and even in Britain, the first in over 80 years. And we have also seen
the development of mass movements of young people in Spain (The
‘Indignados’) as well as in Greece. Europe is now, without doubt, the
epicenter of the crisis.

But we have also observed, with the deepening crisis, the beginning of a
revolt of the youth and the working class in the United States,
reflected in the ‘Occupy’ movement. The crisis is destroying the idea of
the ‘American dream’, opening a completely new stage for the struggles
in the US.

In this context, Latin America does not escape the effects of the global
economic crisis which is unfolding. The relative economic stability of
some countries in the region has been at the expense of deepening their
role as subsidiary producers of raw materials for more developed
economies, and of deepening their reliance on the Chinese economy, which
amid the crisis, has become the locomotive of the world economy.

However, the governments of the region will be forced to implement
adjustment programs, as the economic crisis is becoming more acute and
China’s economy is slowing down. Evidence of this can already be seen in
Brazil and Argentina. In Brazil, the Dilma Rousseff’s government is
making major cuts in public spending and has strangled the minimum wage,
while in Argentina, Cristina Fernandez’s government is putting cap on
wage increases and implementing rises in the prices of gas, electricity
and water. It is noticeable that in many countries which have
experienced economic growth in the recent period there has been an up
turn in workers struggles as workers confidence has been boosted and
they demand “their share of the growth”.

Moreover, the processes in Venezuela and Bolivia are clearly showing
their limits, due to the inability of the governments of Chavez and
Morales to break with capitalism and to solve the urgent problems of
poverty and oppression of the masses. In Bolivia especially, we observe
the development of a new political situation, with growing opposition
from the working class to the policies of Evo Morales and the MAS and
growing support for the idea of a new workers party.

The relative economic stability in the region has allowed the
consolidation of governments promoting neoliberal policies combined with
some social reforms. But this will not be maintained in a context of a
deepening crisis. The massive mobilizations witnessed in Chile in 2011,
against the neoliberal policies implemented for decades, represent an
anticipation of the ‘music of the future’ for the entire region.

The necessity of a socialist alternative to the crisis

The inevitable deepening of the crisis in the coming period will open up
huge opportunities for the genuine ideas of socialism and of a planned
economy, as the only alternative to the chaos and misery offered by
capitalism. But it is also going to be an extremely complex period,
because as never before in history, the level of consciousness of the
masses is far behind the objective requirements arising from the crisis
of society. Decades of neoliberal policies and ideological offensive by
the ruling classes to discredit the ideas of socialism after the
collapse of Stalinism have led to a state of important confusion, on
what socialism really means and how to build a revolutionary alternative
to end the capitalist system.

Ultimately, the lack of a mass revolutionary party on an international
level, armed with a socialist program to transform society, is the main
factor which explains the catastrophic prolongation of the crisis and
why the capitalist class has so far been able to save its system.

So the task of Marxists today is to help workers and youth to draw the
revolutionary conclusions from their concrete experiences, in the heat
of the fight against the crisis. To help to accelerate the realization
of the working masses and the youth that it is impossible to reform
capitalism, hence it is necessary to bring it down to build a new
society: a society based on an economy planned according to the needs of
the population and not the greed of a few, where control and management
is exercised by the workers themselves in a conscious and democratic
way; that is, a socialist society.

This is the great and challenging task that is being taken up by the
CWI, through its organizations in over 45 countries and 5 continents.
Join us to end this system based on oppression, war and misery for
millions, to throw it where it deserves to be: in the dustbin of history.